So my copy arrived last night. I can tell you what it's like a few hours in, but I'm still at the first dungeon.

It's awesome so far. Haven't gotten this into an RPG in a while. It is far darker than P4, and in some ways darker than P2 and P3. There was already an implied rape of a student by a teacher for example. Anne apparently made a deal to sleep with the asshat if he leaves her friend alone. At least that's how my google translator made it sound. :)

The city areas are fricking huge. Lots to explore this time. People are constantly walking by as well. There's literally hundreds of NPCs walking around and living out their daily lives. Most aren't stationary. A nice touch is that the MC looks around when he hears someone talking, or you pass by a shop.

Speaking of the MC, he's not really silent this time. He has a few lines in cutscenes, and you constantly see his thoughts(usually before bed). It kind of reminds me of FFVIII in that single regard. So he's not a mere player avatar. He has his own thoughts and opinions on things. Granted you do still pick a ton of dialogue options, but he definitely has a stronger and more defined personality than previous MCs. He's not the jerk you may imagine him as either. He gets screwed over for trying to do the right thing in his back story. Stopped a guy from sexually assaulting a woman. The guy hurts himself, and tells the cops that MC randomly attacked him though. The lady is too afraid to speak up, and MC gets taken away in cuffs.

Characters seem cool so far, but I've only seen MC, Ryuji, Morgana, and Anne. MC is a total badass. Arrogant and humble at the same time. Ryuji is a great bro type of character and pretty funny. Morgana is adorable and hilarious fighting demons with a scimitar as big as he/she is lol. Morgana kind of reminds me of Nall from Lunar. Anne seems decent enough, but I need to see more of her before making the call. But yeah, so far it's the most likable cast thus far. Usually someone annoys me by now, but these characters all seem pretty cool.

Game play is amazing. EASILY the best in the franchise. Combat is lightning fast, and it has an interface where each button does a different action. Triangle is the Persona button, Square is item, Circle is physical attack etc. It reminds me of Mario RPG, and that is great thing.

Dungeons are actually well designed this time, at least the first one is. It has style, and is fun to navigate. Not merely a series of interconnected corridors(3 and 4), or a a bunch of god awful pitfall traps(2). It reminds me a lot of classic PS1 era style dungeons. Kind of getting The Legend of Dragoon Hellena Fortress vibes with the stealth mechanics, and action button commands, but that may be just me.

Music is better than I thought. Not a big fan of the songs with lyrics, but some of instrumental stuff is quite good.

If you have any questions feel free to ask.

Mirage

09-28-2016, 12:06 AM

is this a japanese import?

Bright Shield

09-28-2016, 12:13 AM

^Yes, the English version won't be out until February 14. Luckily I speak a little Japanese, and thank the gods for the Google Translate app.

Formalhaut

09-28-2016, 12:23 AM

I've furiously avoiding spoilers but I've allowed myself the listening of the OST. I agree pretty much with your assessment: pleasantly surprised. Having said that, it hasn't blown me away, and I cannot rate the new vocalist terribly highly. That isn't a fault on her, Persona has always been weakest when it comes to vocal tracks. I only really thought Lotus Juice's work on Persona 3 to be the best vocal tracks. Persona 4 had some good vocals.

I keep listening to 'Last Surprise', the standard battle music in this game, and while it is good, it weakens somewhat when Lyn starts singing. It's unfortunate. Having said that, many of the instrumentals are really very good. Persona's tracks have always been best listened to 'in-game' anyway.

Bright Shield

09-28-2016, 12:31 AM

Not sure what it's called, but I really like the melancholy town theme. It's a lot better than the J-Pop that plays in 3 and 4 if you ask me. The danger theme is pretty decent too.

Kinda disagree with the musical assessment, since I always enjoyed the vocal tracks of Persona, especially in 3 as Yumi Kawamura pretty much nailed that middle ground between hard rock and jpop with the color of her voice, but Lyn just doesn't seem to hold up in my opinion. For the tracks she sings, her voice just seems a bit too muted or sandy, or whatever you wanna call it. She should be singing smooth jazz and not... this.

I still dig the music. I just liked Kawamura'a vocals much better.

Wolf Kanno

09-28-2016, 09:40 AM

Avoiding spoilers but your first impressions sound pretty great. Still my most anticipated game of 2017.

Formalhaut

09-28-2016, 02:10 PM

Kinda disagree with the musical assessment, since I always enjoyed the vocal tracks of Persona, especially in 3 as Yumi Kawamura pretty much nailed that middle ground between hard rock and jpop with the color of her voice, but Lyn just doesn't seem to hold up in my opinion. For the tracks she sings, her voice just seems a bit too muted or sandy, or whatever you wanna call it. She should be singing smooth jazz and not... this.

I still dig the music. I just liked Kawamura'a vocals much better.

I'll concede, the vocals in Persona 3 were very good. I think that's how I would describe Lyn's singing; it just isn't punchy enough. And it really hits home in the battle themes. They just don't sound very battle-y. Persona 5's music can be described as rather like acid jazz in places, which doesn't mesh well with Lyn, I think.

Fynn

09-28-2016, 03:03 PM

Like I said, she'd make an amazing smooth jazz or indie pop vocalist because she does have a nice voice, but it just seems a tad soft for this type of soundtrack.

I still like the soundtrack a whole lot, don't get me wrong. I just think vocals have been done better in the series in the past ;)